


Sisu

by The_Lazy_Took



Category: None (Original Work)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-15
Updated: 2015-03-15
Packaged: 2018-03-17 21:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3545096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Lazy_Took/pseuds/The_Lazy_Took
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The rags-to-riches, coming-of-age, Rock n' Roll story about a girl named Sisu.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sisu

The sky was dark above the arena lights, which shone dimly over the rolling sea of people. The thousands of them created a constant, rumbling murmur, cresting and breaking like waves around the elevated stage and its massive monitors-- everyone was waiting eagerly for the show to begin.

On and behind the stage, a troupe of trained roadies were bustling all about. They were finishing set-up and double-checking everything-- some were taping down wires, others saw to the smoke machines and fans that were littered around the stage’s perimeter, and others still were adjusting the settings on each band members’ in-ear monitors.

In the midst of it all, while a roadie helped to affix her wireless pack, stood Sisu. Absently, she watched everyone running around, her eyes drifting lazily over the scene before her until her gaze fell upon the lead guitarist’s slim waist. Silently, she followed the perfect S-curve that started from where his lower back flowed into his broad shoulders, and mentally remarked the powerful build of his arms. Then suddenly, as if he could sense her eyes on him, Jackson turned and caught her stare with his own. Their connection held only briefly, though—interrupted by Marco clapping a heavy arm around his shoulders.

“Can you believe this, Jacky?” Marco barked excitedly, lolling his head and pressing his hand on Jackson’s chest to give him a light shake. “Can you fuckin believe this? A year ago, we were eating tuna out of the can and sleeping on mattresses on the floor, and now just look at all of ‘em! Every single one of em, here to see us! Hahaa!”

Jackson and Marco had both gone to Sisu’s high school, and through the subsequent years they three had clawed and climbed their way through indigence and obscurity together. Now here they stood, about to headline their first-ever arena show to a sold-out crowd. Sisu could feel the excitement and anxiety in the air tingling down her spine like electricity.

Marco let go, and he and Jackson slung their electric guitars over their chests. While they were doing so, Sisu closed the distance between the three of them and stood excitedly by Jackson’s side.

The lights in the arena went completely black then, and the crowd erupted into a rolling roar. As the light boxes strobed, and special effects outlined their band’s name on the giant monitors, and the smoke machines puffed away, Jackson reached over and gave Sisu’s hand a reassuring squeeze. She looked into his eyes, which were ablaze with intensity and anticipation.

As usual, Jackson cocked that cheeky smile of his that pressed in at the corners of his mouth, and shot her a playful wink.

“Ready to finally make all of our dreams come true?”

Marco walked over to flank Sisu’s other side, and the three of them ran up the stairs and into the spotlight onstage. They let go of each other’s hands at only the last-possible moment.

 

Sisu’s eyes shot wide open, and staring into the eigengrau above her, she tried desperately to make sense of her surroundings. Things came back to her slowly, bleeding in and filling the fissure between her dreaming and waking lives. The static in the room settled, and started to make sense again.

She was lying in bed in her efficiency apartment, and Autumnal Sky’s album _Days_ played in the background of her phone. Driven by habit moreso than by conscious decision, Sisu reached over for it and checked the time. It was 3:13 in the morning on January 27th, and apparently it was -13ᵒF and snowing outside. She didn’t have to go to work tomorrow, but she knew that being awake so late would mess up her sleeping schedule pretty bad for the next couple of days. Yet there she lay on her bed, holding her phone above her head and suddenly wide-awake beneath its glow.

She set it back on her nightstand (which, to be honest, was just a cardboard box that she’d covered with a cloth next to her bed) and mulled over the music as it played on low. It was one-of-a-kind Metal, with a digitally-rendered Asian orchestra backing the heavily-distorted Finnish guitars. It was like a movie’s soundtrack-- a sound that could only be described as Epic. And as the album played on, the tension of the phrases rising and falling, Sisu felt something pull inside of her.

What was it about the wee hours that made people feel like they could do anything?

She wasn’t sure, but life’s big questions crept like shadows on all the edges of her mind:

_When I am old and grey, and I look back on the youth of my life, will I regret? What will I regret not having done? What do I want to do with my life? What do I want?_

_What do I want?_

 

And for the first time in her life, in that moment at 3:13 in the morning on January 27th, Sisu knew the answer. She grabbed the revelation with her whole heart, and as if to cover it in magma-hot passion and harden it into conviction, she whispered those magic words out loud:

 

“I want to be a musician.”


End file.
